No 56k: Racing to the Punchline - kicking tires with public and frankiess

Yeah, I just cleared the slush out from the glitched one and it popped right back up.
 
Apart from the diff problem...what did you guys expect??? You're in the market for a cheap 15/20+ year old car, and you expect it to have a full service history and no bodywork problems??? Dream on...

I'm getting back on this. I think it's not unfair to want a car to be in the best possible condition, regardless of age. The used car market in Finland is not unreasonable, and cars often have been serviced properly, and not all have paint issues or rust, especially depending of the region in which it was first registered; some regions use road salt more liberally, some regions have different road networks.

You often see ads with the line "The car isn't new", but I think it's a moot point. Anybody can buy the first 1986 car they see, and then complain of the rust bubbles or clunky suspension; the idea is to comb the car ads, looking for the ones that have been treated properly, and then try to get out with a screaming deal.
 
Apart from the diff problem...what did you guys expect???

http://img192.imageshack.**/img192/7046/79008719.jpg

My E28, bought it for 1000e. Rustfree, 218tkm, technically flawless. Fun little thing. Sold it for 1800e, after getting a new rear bumper for it.

http://img51.imageshack.**/img51/4801/maudi3.jpg

My Audi. Bought it for 1400e. Also rustfree (duh). 153tkm, technically flawless. Fixed the electric niggles, cleaned 'er up and sold for 1800e.

You're in the market for a cheap 15/20+ year old car, and you expect it to have a full service history and no bodywork problems??? Dream on...

Wake up on the wrong foot much? :blink:

We do this for FUN. We grab the best of the lot when they come by. Just to prove that old cars can be good deals, and to laugh at people spending ten times the cash on new cars that aren't nearly as well made.

So to answer your question, yes, I damn well expect my 15-20 year old car to be relatively fresh in the bodywork department and have a decent history.
 
So, yesterday me and Frankiess had some time to kill, and we ended up in Tuusula again. I was originally trying to schedule a viewing of a white 1989 Citro?n BX, but it had been sold one hour before I called about it. Shame, it was apparently in tidy condition with one doctor owner and a complete Rekara (Finnish Citro?n specialist) service history - a reasonable 690 euro.

All we could do then was roam the grounds and check out some dodgy machinery instead.

http://img340.imageshack.**/img340/4976/pic0937.jpg

The first car we prodded about was a 1983 Mercedes-Benz 200D. It was a pea soup hue, with absolutely dreadful seat covers; it looked quite straight, but had had some recent welding and restoration done, and I wasn't too sure how those fixes would hold up; depends of how they were done. It had a taxi meter console in the dashboard, so the 555k on the clock might or might not be correct.

http://img687.imageshack.**/img687/1160/pic0938.jpg

We then laid out eyes on a bouncer-spec Mercedes R129, which looked like a complete heap. Frankiess has a thing for these cars, so this one had him queasy.

http://img3.imageshack.**/img3/3606/pic0939.jpg

This one is for HighVoltage: a Volvo 850 T5-R wagon. It's green, which is rare for these cars, and suggests it's an Italian import, and so might be a 2.0-litre version. 6800 euro, and not that terrible.

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A 39 000 km Japanese import Mustang 3.8 V6 - I lol'd at the description in the sticker, "The km's guarantee the condition!" It's in Tuusula, which guarantees the condition...

http://img42.imageshack.**/img42/1151/pic0941.jpg

The next in line was this US-model 560SEC with 133k miles. Advertised as a collectible, it was more of a restoration project as the years had treated it roughly. The interior had numerous splits and misaligned panels, and without a service history mention it didn't look too convincing.

http://img686.imageshack.**/img686/4531/pic0942.jpg

I love details like this, and the springboard bumpers.

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http://img263.imageshack.**/img263/2592/pic0946.jpg

With Hemihead in mind, I took a look at this 605 3.0 automatic. It wasn't in too bad a shape, actually, as there wasn't a lot of dings and a look at the underbody only showed minimal rust. The exhaust was on its way out, the driver's side headlight washer was gone and that corner had had a confrontation, but it seemed a straight car. Too expensive at 3k, but as it had something like 130 000 km, it wasn't a heap.

http://img291.imageshack.**/img291/7106/pic0947.jpg

Looking at the Peugeot, we were entertained by a random daredevil doing tricks on his bike. I half expected him to run into a parked car.

http://img251.imageshack.**/img251/275/pic0943j.jpg

The last thing we looked at was this CL; those things are huge. They make the 560SEC look positively 190E in size.
 
That CL used to be belong to our old neighbours! Also, you sure as hell can't tell much about a car's underbody condition by just looking at it from underneath. :)
 
That CL used to be belong to our old neighbours! Also, you sure as hell can't tell much about a car's underbody condition by just looking at it from underneath. :)

Please clarify.
 
http://img340.imageshack.**/img340/4976/pic0937.jpg

The Merc got me out of the car because of its shininess. It quickly became was apparent though, that this car was 40% Merc and 60% something else. None of the body lines matched up and that interior ugh.. makes me nauseous just thinking about it. I mean, who could do such a thing? Sure, these things can take a lot of punishment, but 550tkm at a bargain price of 1800?? Hardly an instant sale.

http://img687.imageshack.**/img687/1160/pic0938.jpg

This poor thing, crying out "Kill me" in true Alien-style. Just too horrible to bear. I'm not sure if this thing was for sale at all, and frankly, I wasn't going to ask. The neglect these SL-cars go through, it's such a crime. Also, as a curious observation, this bouncer-spec seems to come out in a lot of cars I'm interested in. "Cramping my style" is suverely understating it.

I'm not gonna comment on the Volvo, those things make no noise on my radar, so it might as well not have been there.

http://img42.imageshack.**/img42/1151/pic0941.jpg

This "collectible" had me laughing on the inside as well. Advertising this crap as collectible. Blasphemous.

Oh and that CL. Couldn't believe the size. It was awesome, in the original meaning of the word. Not that I'd drive it ever, but what a monumentally massive car. :blink:


Greets to public for the pics and the ride. :p
 
Yeah, of course there can be rust which has been covered with underseal; but as I couldn't have the 605 hoisted up and poked with a hammer, this was my best guesstimate.
 
And yeah, I loved how I told a guy "we're looking at a 3-4k car with A/C, for a friend's mom" (we were, too), and he showed us an Avensis diesel with 424k on the clock. "God damn great car, can't see the km's anywhere except the odo." I then pointed out a huge black soot mark in the door of a car parked behind it, and the mark was exactly where the Avensis' exhaust pointed at. "Ah, there's been a van parked here before."
 
http://img3.imageshack.**/img3/3606/pic0939.jpg

This one is for HighVoltage: a Volvo 850 T5-R wagon. It's green, which is rare for these cars, and suggests it's an Italian import, and so might be a 2.0-litre version. 6800 euro, and not that terrible.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??? This is quite possibly the rarest Volvo ever made - Dark Olive Green T5-R's are the rarest (the color was not available on anything else) and most of them were sedans. This is truly rare, I'm guessing 1 of 50 in the whole world. And it's the proper 2.3 Turbo with 220hp (240 with the overboost), I wonder if it was a manual? This is like my dream car :)
 
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That makes it even rarer...but it also means that it is slower than the regular T5-R's. This one has only 225hp. The good news is 300Nm of torque.

I would so jump on it if I were in Europe.
 
I really don't understand why you people up north don't like Volvos.

A true T5-R (with the 2.3 litre and manual gearbox) from the factory does 0-60 in 5.7 sec and when ungoverned 167mph...how is that not awesome? :)
 
It's awesome right up until the point the thing breaks, which it will.

They sold a lot of T5R's in the US and most of them have since died.
 
I really don't understand why you people up north don't like Volvos.

A true T5-R (with the 2.3 litre and manual gearbox) from the factory does 0-60 in 5.7 sec and when ungoverned 167mph...how is that not awesome? :)

Volvo's are a bit like Saab's, they just don't strike that cord with many people. No biggie, the GT-R for instance, does absolutely nothing for me, still a fast car tho
 
Spectre, there were less than 2000 T5R's sold in the states in 1995. A lot of them are still running and are owned by collectors. They really aren't bad cars, and don't break a lot. Not more than any Merc or Beemer in any case.

prizrak, I agree. There aren't many lovers of the T5R Volvos. I didn't know anything about them a year and a half ago.
 
Spectre, there were less than 2000 T5R's sold in the states in 1995. A lot of them are still running and are owned by collectors. They really aren't bad cars, and don't break a lot. Not more than any Merc or Beemer in any case.

prizrak, I agree. There aren't many lovers of the T5R Volvos. I didn't know anything about them a year and a half ago.

There isn't much of a difference between the T5 and the T5R, and both tended to break in hotter climates. The 850R had more power than the T5R, too.
 
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Yes, the only real difference was the ECU. (the 850R had a different Turbo, but still similar)

There is some truth to your words. Right now I see far more NA Volvo's like mine than Turbo's. But also, from what I've read on the Volvo forums - as long as you don't neglect the cars, and keep up with scheduled maintenance, the Turbo cars can be very reliable.
 
IIRC, and it's been a while since I looked into it, the problems for the hi-po turbo Volvos tended to be an undercooled automatic and an undersized-in-general cooling system, which made them unhappy in the bottom half of the US.

Edit: Also, the 850 turbos had additional issues with turbo life due to the location of the turbo itself. Thank you, transverse engine... Servicing the turbo is an exercise in frustration.
 
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